Gas prices are up in the Twin Cities and Edwin Schenk of South St. Paul fills his tank at Kaposia Convenience Store in South St. Paul on Monday, January 28, 2013. Schenk uses premium gas which was $3.599 a gallon. Schenk believes he gets better mileage and it’s better for his engine. He also never lets his tank get more than 1/2 empty. “It’s psychologically easier that way,” he said. (Pioneer Press: Ginger Pinson)

Minnesota is getting more of its gasoline from Canadian sources this winter, and it’s proving to be a little more expensive than gasoline that comes from refineries near the Gulf of Mexico.

That’s one reason gas prices have been on the uptick in the Twin Cities in recent weeks, said Gail Weinholzer, spokeswoman for AAA of Minnesota and Iowa.

Another key problem: Six refineries around the U.S. are closed for various reasons, including two in the Chicago area that provide gasoline to parts of Minnesota, she said. Until they’re back up and running, gasoline supplies will be constricted.

Prices in Minnesota averaged $3.27 per gallon on Monday, Jan. 28, Weinholzer said, compared with $3.35 nationally. At twincitiesgasprices.com, a crowd-sourced website, input from monitors showed the metro average at $3.33 per gallon and rising.

“Typically (gasoline) demand is down quite a bit at this time of year,” Weinholzer said Monday, because people drive less in the winter months. “We’d anticipate a decline (in prices) from now until the end of March, when there’s the switchover to summer-type fuels.”

But that price decline hasn’t occurred in recent years because of concerns about the Middle East oil supply and political issues there and in North Africa, she said. That includes suppliers who are nervous about the attacks at a BP facility in Algeria earlier this month.

Encouraging signs in the broader economy also have contributed to the higher price of crude oil, which was $96.44 per barrel for West Texas crude on Monday.

That marked the highest settlement price per barrel since Sept. 17 — a price that has been on the rise this month following the United State’s avoidance of the “fiscal cliff,” or automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that Congress faced with the New Year.

Experts say that if there’s an encouraging national unemployment report, due out Friday, oil prices may push higher as optimism gets some footing.

Last year at this time, gas prices averaged $3.30 per gallon in Minnesota, Weinholzer said. That’s more than the $3.27 Minnesotans are paying now, but the timing of the recent spike might make it seem like less of a treat.

In late December, prices at the pump averaged $3.10 per gallon in the Twin Cities. They then started a quick drop down to $2.89 by Jan. 9, marking the first time prices had fallen to less than $3 per gallon in the Twin Cities since late 2010, according to twincitiesgasprices.com.

But that slide ended by Jan. 9, when prices started rising again, a trend that hasn’t let up. Yet.

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